Sean Corcoran

Managing Editor of News

Sean Corcoran is both news director and senior reporter at WCAI in Woods Hole. He also is a managing editor for WGBH Radio. He began producing investigative series for WCAI in 2005, after moving to Cape Cod. In 2006 his 20-part series "Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands," won the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, considered the highest award in broadcast journalism. Recent series' topics include the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant; wind power; Alzheimer's Research and caregiving; military groundwater pollution; our changing energy systems; special education; and various science, health and ecology-related stories. For the first nine years of his career Corcoran worked as a staff reporter for various New England newspapers before moving to public radio. Corcoran is a graduate of The George Washington University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is a former 3rd grade teacher and adjunct journalism professor. He occasionally performs onstage with his father, an accomplished Irish entertainer. He lives on Cape Cod with his wife, Linda Corcoran, who is heard on-air on Friday mornings in her capacity as the Managing Editor at the Cape Cod Times. The couple has a young son, Seamus.

Ways To Connect

WCAI News Director Sean Corcoran hosts the Friday News Roundup, talking to local journalists about some of the week's top news. Guests include Patrick Cassidy from the Cape Cod Times; Tim Wood at the Cape Cod Chronicle; Sally Rose from the Provincetown Banner; Josh Balling from the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror; Jim DeArruda from the New Bedford Standard Times; and NelsonSigelman from the Martha's Vineyard Times.

WCAI News Director Sean Corcoran hosts a discussion of the week's top local news stories. Guests are WCAI's Brian Morris, Patrick Cassidy of the Cape Cod Times, Tim Wood with the Cape Cod Chronicle, Andy Tomolonis at the New Bedford Standard-Times, Sally Rose at the Provincetown Banner, Josh Balling at the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, and Nelson Sigelman with the Martha's Vineyard Times.

At Jenni Bick Bookbinding in Vineyard Haven, Juliette Bittner and Lauren Clark are sewing books together, punching holes through the leather covers and sticking pages in. The papers are all different colors and textures. Some are lined, others are printed.

"They have a variance of pages that you can write on and draw on and glue things into," said Bittner, who has worked here since she moved to the island five years ago.

At Mass Automation in Bourne, a team of eight or so engineers and skilled workers custom-build machines that have never been made before. It's a business built on innovation.

"We design and build custom equipment," said company president John Fraser. "A lot of it for medical and pharmaceutical type applications. Johnson and Johnson might come to us with a new surgical sponge that they've designed, and we'll design a machine to automate making that sponge."

Lined up on the manufacturing floor of the Bourne-based company, Hydroid, the underwater robots look like torpedoes, with tail fins and rear propellers. They're different sizes, some six feet long, others more than double that length. The biggest one is painted a bright yellow submarine color, while the smaller ones are dark gray with black, so they're less easy to see when underwater.

"Two-thirds of our business is with the US Navy," said Hydroid president Duane Fotheringham. "We're also in 17 navies around the world. "

Great physical and mental health benefits are proven results of yoga practice. A local non-profit, Yoga Neighborhood, aims to make yoga accessible to all, regardless of age or income level. Sean Corcoran talks with Virginia Hoeck, director of Yoga Neighborhood, about the project.

Sean Corcoran talks about the preservation of a small barn in the dunes of Provincetown known as the Hawthorne Art Barn, and the next generation of art being created within its walls, with the founders of the non profit 20 Summers that saved the barn- Julia Glass and Joshua Prager.

We note the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War by hearing some of the music from that era with pianist Jacqueline Schwab from Chatham, and John Yankee of the Falmouth Chorale. Sean Corcoran hosts.